The Adventures of Rich and GC: Time Warp

During operation Desert Shield/ Storm our unit’s operational tempo was very heavy. Our platoon was split in to two groups, one working night shift and one working the day shift. We would go out on patrol right after the 6:00 meal drive out to the patrol area for about half an hour to an hour, and meet up with the other crew we were replacing. We would then discuss whatever the squad leaders needed to discuss, and then patrol the area for 12 hours. This went on and on for a couple of months without a break as we waited for our orders to move up closer to the front. After each patrol period we would then do the reverse of our morning’s trade off and then if we were on night shift we would also take care of the shit detail. Clean up and then get something to eat and go to sleep. The odd thing was that because of the latitude of our location, sunrise and sunset always happened at about 6:30, AM or PM and thus meal time was always in the same amount of light.

When the shooting started we would frequently get woken up by SCUD alerts and have to run to the bunkers. This had the effect of causing us to lose even more sleep. At that point that on any given day during the first month of Desert Storm, we were awake ~18 hours a day and slept whenever we could manage it.

It was during this grind, without a day off for several months that GC had an odd experience. One night at the end of our shift we walked into our tent to drop our gear, and then went to the mess tent for some food. When he was in our tent GC undid his web gear, and laid back on his bunk only meaning to take a quick cat nap. When we came back from the mess tent we noticed GC was fast asleep on his cot with his legs hanging off the edge and his feet still in his boots, on the floor. We tried half heartedly to roust him so he could get some food but to no avail. That night we did not have a scud alert and all of us got a good six hours or so of rest. When we got up, GC’s driver, Sgt Durham kicked GC and said “Hey you better go over to the mess tent and get some food.” So GC got up and walked down to the mess tent. He Got his tray and stared at it for a while with this odd look on his face.

He told me a few years later, that to him he had only laid down for a few seconds. Thus he was wondering why we were having scrambled eggs for dinner. However, as we had always been given such odd meals, he really didn’t think too much of it. It was not until he started to take off his boots and uniform to go to bed that Sgt Durham broke the spell by yelling at him for not being ready to go out on patrol. It was then he realized he was the victim of a sleep induced time warp.

(c) 2009 William T. Richards